Improvement in trunks



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STEPHEN F. SUMMERS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRUNKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 15,826, dated September 30, 18516.

T0 all whom4 it may concern.-

Beit known that I, STEPHEN F. SUMMERS, of St. Louis, in the county of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Trunks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification- Figure l being a plan of the inside of a trunk provided with my improvements, the top being removed; Fig. 2, a longitudinal vertical section thereof in the line of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a view, on a smaller scale, of the bottom of the trunk; Fig. 4.a transverse vertical section in the line yy of Fig.

Like letters designate corresponding parts Y in all the figures.

In each `end of the trunk,on the inside both of the body and cover, I insert a metallic lining E, cast or stampedin onepiece and reaching some two or three inches from the end, substantially as represented. These bracelinings are firmly' riveted to the ends, sides, and top orbottom of t-he trunk. Each of these linings beingthus formed of one unyielding piece and firmly secured to all the parts Which meet at the ends, the trunk thereby is renderedexceedingly strong, so that it becomes almost impossible to break it by any violence which will not absolutelycrush the material of which it is made. This method of bracing is cheap and allows a neat tinish to be given to the trunk.

The essential feature of my improvement consists in the employment of metallic strips D D, passingY lengthwise along the inside of the trunk at a little distance, respectively, from each side and Iirmly riveted to the botf tom thereof through the brace-linings and also through other parts of the bottom. The object of these strips is to afford a firm support for securing the casters G G to the trunk,

and thus dispense with the usual outside` guard-strips on the bottom. The casters are attached to the trunk by rivets d d, passing up through the bottom and said metallic strips, upon which they are strongly headed. In this Way the casters are secured so firmly to the trunk that no ordinary violence can?, break the fastening, and by thus allowing the elastic leather of the bottom to intervene between the casters and the strips the liability of the casters being broken is almost entirely obviated, Whereas if the casters were secured immediately to wood or iron the want of elasticity would cause them frequently to break, and without any strips to which to attach the casters the leather would not be sutiiciently tirm to support them. These strips turn upward at the ends of the trunk and terminate in projections l) b, which are used as supports for the tray C. The bending or yielding of the strips themselves also assists in protecting the casters from the effects of violent handling.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The inside metallic strips D D, arranged in combination with the casters, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

The above specification of my new and useful improvement in trunks signed by me this 13th day of August, 1856.

STEP. F. SUMMERS. Witnesses:

JAS. F. MCGEE, J. S. BROWN. 

